Category: Critical Care
Keywords: antibiotics, drug resistance, (PubMed Search)
Posted: 1/5/2016 by Feras Khan, MD
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Happy New Year!!!
My new year's resolution is to use less antibiotics (and eat more Cap'n Crunch Berries)
Will I be successful?
A multi-center, ICU, observational study looking at over 900 patients from 67 ICUs showed that half of all empiric antibiotics ordered in patients are continued for at least 72 hours in the abscence of adjudicated infection.
Things to consider:
The same way we try and limit central line use, we should try and decrease antibiotic usage on a daily basis
Tips to decrease use: daily clinical pharmacist input, ID specialist involvement, automated stop dates, 72 hour vancomycin cessation protocols, incentives for de-escalation, educational resources
Thomas, Zachariah PharmD